tuberosa, as he interpreted it, consists of two strongly 
marked geographic variations. He stated that essentially 
all the material from New England belonged to one 
category, readily recognizable by the relatively close 
spikes of closely spiralling, often crowded flowers, and a 
thick, usually solitary vertical “‘tuber.’’ To the other 
category he assigned all the material in the Gray Her- 
barium from eastern Texas to Florida and north to South 
Carolina in which the spikes are strongly secund without 
or with few spiral twists in the rachis and with the rela- 
tively few flowers distant and not overlapping. Fernald 
stated further: ‘‘From North Carolina to New Jersey 
both variations, with some transitions, occur, the plant 
often reaching a height of 5.25 dm., while its roots are 
usually more slender and not infrequently 2 or even 3. 
This is true S. tuberosa Raf....’’ It is difficult to see 
why S. tuberosa, described by Rafinesque as ‘‘rad. tu- 
berosa monorchis’’ should be applied to the southern 
variant with not infrequently 2 or even 8 roots, rather 
than to the northern one with its characteristic thick 
solitary turbinate root. 
In his recent articles on Spiranthes, Professor Fernald 
has placed stress on the structure or aspect of the spikes 
and on the presence or absence of foliage at flowering 
time, seeming to regard vegetative characters as relia- 
ble guides to specific differences in the genus. Whether 
the spikes are congested or slender; whether they are 
composed of many spirals or of few; whether the flowers 
are quaquaversal or secund is a manifestation of the na- 
ture of seasonal growth. The behavior of the flowers in 
the spikes in their response to torsion does not give rise 
to a fixed specific or inherited pattern. As should be ex- 
pected, rachidial torsion varies in intensity from plant to 
plant, and in the same species varying degrees of spiral- 
ity in the arrangement of the flowers may be regarded 
[ 21 ] 
